Modern lamps such as LED lamps may operate as intelligent lighting devices to react to environmental conditions, such as temperature and ambient light. To facilitate this intelligent operation, the lamps generally need to communicate with the outside world. For example, intelligent lighting devices may need to communicate their state to the outside world, or to receive information from external devices, such as transformers. Typically, a microprocessor in the intelligent lighting devices facilitates this communication.
Most lamps, especially conventional lighting devices, do not have a mechanism for exchanging data or control signals. Typically, the only means of communication with a lamp, such as an LED lamp, is through the power line, and signals transmitted over power lines are usually analog signals. However, data signals are typically exchanged digitally.
While some conventional approaches attempt to modulate an analog signal to exchange data between a lighting element and an external device, this can be problematic, especially for LED devices where the integrity of the analog signal is critical to the lighting characteristics of the lamp. For example, dropouts and any other profile characteristics of a modulated analog signal can cause flickering or other unwanted artifacts, which diminish the quality and integrity of the light of the LED device.
Therefore, Applicants have identified the need to communicate with a lamp without the signal interfering with the lighting characteristics of the lamp. The present invention fulfills this need among others.